Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
From the moment you step into Darth Vader’s glossy black shoes and cause utter mayhem by Force-pushing, -gripping, and -throwing Wookiees all over Kashyyyk, The Force Unleashed makes itself known. This is Star Wars like you’ve never seen it before – an overthe-top action-adventure game, tied together with a surprisingly dark story.
The game allows you to manipulate the Force with unparalleled creativity, from plucking a variety of objects out of the sky and tossing them wherever you see fit to sending hordes of enemies ragdolling to their demise at the tap of a button. A morbid satisfaction comes from lifting stormtroopers into the air with Force Grip and watching them squirm helplessly, and it never grows old.
The team at LucasArts homed in on this aspect of the game throughout development, establishing an internal vision of “kicking someone’s ass with the Force”. And in doing so, they sought the assistance of various third-party systems such as the Havok and Digital
Molecular Matter physics engines, which ended up pushing the fledgling PlayStation 3 version to its limits.
But even before that, various concepts had been thrown around in regards to the story. There was talk of doing a Darth Maul game, and LucasArts even considered creating a game with a Wookiee as the main protagonist – at which suggestion, according to the Unleashing The Force documentary, Star Wars creator George Lucas allegedly commented, “I just spent 45 minutes talking to you about the importance of drama, and you present me a game concept where the main character doesn’t talk?”
The writers eventually, of course, landed on the idea of Galen Marek, aka Starkiller – an all-powerful Force user, and secret apprentice to Darth Vader.
And it’s startling to revisit just how evil and violent Marek’s narrative can prove in the early stages, when his allegiance to the Dark Side leads him down more than a few unsavoury, Jedi-Mastermurdering paths.
BREAK THE FORCE WALL
The story has received praise over the years for its bold approach and enjoyable twists, but it’s also had its detractors criticising some of the more extreme plot points. How can this guy use the Force to pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky when even Master Yoda would struggle to do that? Aconundrumitis,mmm. But it certainly buys into The Force Unleashed’s idea of a Star Wars power fantasy.
You can’t take control of that famous Star Destroyer scene in the PS2 and PSP versions, which were custom-built by developer Krome Studios. But the scene’s reliance on a notoriously clunky targeting system makes this something of a positive. In fact, some fans swear by these iterations as the best way to play the game, and if you’ve only ever tried it on PS3, there are some extra story elements and modes to be discovered here.
Regardless of how you play, there’s still a lot to enjoy about The Force Unleashed in 2019. It makes a lasting impression by daring to be different, introducing unique story and gameplay elements that, outside of its sequel, haven’t been replicated since. That’s arguably why it’s curated such a dedicated fanbase, ensuring that despite the series’ cancellation, the Force will be with this one, always.
ALLOWS YOU TO MANIPULATE THE FORCE WITH UNPARALLELED CREATIVITY.